The Ibero-American companies present at Content Americas 2024 advocate for the use of new business models as the solution to the contraction of the industry, which executives are optimistic about facing based on unity and creativity.
*By Luis Cabrera, with production by Ana Paula Carreira, Agustín Aguiar and Fernando Moreno
Co-productions are the most popular partnership method, but it is not the only creative business model that content creators are exploiting to face the contraction of a market that seeks to minimize risks, but without ceasing to serve a desired content audience.
The second day of Content Americas 2024, which is taking place these days at the Hilton Miami Downtown, continued to be a vibrant market, with excellent attendance and great meeting dynamics, marked by a realistic vision of the current situation in the audiovisual industry, but with a clear desire to seek joint solutions to confront obstacles.
“We have many productions on the air, happy with the business model that we started working on last year, in association with multiple platforms,” said Michelle Wasserman, VPS for LatAm, USH and Brazil at Banijay Rights. “So it’s a very optimistic year even though the industry is going through a difficult time.”
“[2023] was a challenging year,” said Ben Samek, CEO of Banijay Americas, during his keynote. “But despite the general economic situation, our presence in Brazil grew, with the acquisition of Fabrica and the new hub in San Pablo, and we have had many top-level content launches, with productions in Mexico for Telemundo and Televisa, for example.”
In terms of formats, NBCUniversal Formats, represented at the event by Ana Lagenberg and Albertina Marfil, also shared the success of its formats, scripted and non-scripted, which mix recognized titles with novelties that seek to be the next big success of the genre.
Co-production as the axis
Within the panel “España y Latam quieren coproducir, ¿cómo hacer que funcionar?” Gonzalo Sagardia, CEO of Onza; María Valenzuela, general director of Movistar Plus+ Internacional; along with Camila Jiménez-Villa, executive director and co-founder of The Immigrant; and Alfonso Blanco, general director of Portocabo, gave an optimistic vision about the future of international co-productions between both regions.
“I believe that the co-production model is perfectly valid, that it must be vindicated and that it has many advantages in the current sector where the market is in contraction,” said Sagardia, who highlighted that today it represents reality, given the great presence of Latin community in Spain. “You invest less when you make co-productions, but very good opportunities are generated.”
“There are as many business models as there are stories: there are many possibilities,” Valenzuela added. “Producers and platforms have seen many ways to make content get produced. There is no pattern.”
Adjustments and clear accounts is, of course, the basis of any model, a reality that Hemisphere Media is currently going through: «In the previous five years we had the screen business that was the company’s main focus, always producing and marketing content, thinking about the windows, the co-productions, everything was focused on the screen. Without underestimating our five cable channels, WAPA Television and the production aspect,” said Jim McNamara, vice president of Hemisphere Media Group.
This adjustment has led buyers to take fewer risks in their search for new content, something that Atresmedia International Sales is aware of. The Spanish company brought premium series such as Camilo Superstar and Las noches de Tefia to the market, but also a guaranteed success in its new telenovela, Sueños de libertad, soon to be released. “Amar es para siempre has been on the screen for 12 years, daily with great success. But everything has to end and what we don’t want is to lose that success and track record. That’s why we launched this new telenovela,” said Miguel García Sánchez, Sales Director.
In any case, Content Americas is positioned as a favorable event for companies seeking to carry out relevant networking that concretes strategic alliances and makes projects a reality: “From the first day we have been lucky to get very promising interviews. We will leave confident that our production has been able to attract important people in the field, very indie, but with many more years of experience than us,” said Miguel Siles, from the Peruvian production company La Luna Pintada.
The return of the window
In terms of panels, the second day also focused on content with a keynote of spectacular level and dynamics, between both participants: Pierluigi Gazzolo, CEI of ViX and Raúl Berdonés, executive president of Secuoya Content Group.
“The amount of investment on the part of the players is not reducing, I believe that is not the case: less is being produced,” said Berdonés. “We are seeing great products, with higher quality and with more resources.”
“Platforms are looking for bigger content at a better price,” added the Spanish executive. “Now the opportunity for windowing opens up, we are returning to a place where there are both things: original content and windowing. It is the best, it allows us all to win, and to be able to return the success of the productions to the producers.”
“We already market internally, with ViX Premium and free ViX,” said Gazzolo. “On a general level, we launched a year and a half ago with a great benefit: we do not seek to be global.”
“This year we are going to begin exploring windows within Latin America,” he added. “Because at the end of the day we want to continue with volumes of originals, but maintain quality.”
Other trends that the executives highlighted during their keynote were the entry of more advertising into content, replicating what is already seen in feature films; and also how well the documentaries are working on the platforms. “I recommend that documentaries continue to be produced, because at ViX we have had several success stories,” said Gazzolo.
The golden age of documentaries
Perhaps overshadowed by the explosion of television series, documentaries have become content of enormous quality and engagement for international audiences, as has been proven time and again with productions in different genres.
As an example, Record TV is presenting two powerful documentaries in Miami, the award-winning La bestia, and the more recent The Hospital: “Record is now paying special attention to documentaries,” said Delmar Andrade, Director of International Sales at Record TV”
“For us it is a good moment because the documentary is experiencing a golden age in Spain and around the world,” commented Santi Aguado, general director of Capa España. “The documentary, which was previously seen as an alternative and even boring format, has become an entertainment format.”
A moving breakfast
The morning began with the screening of the first episode of Justice: Misconduct, the Globoplay miniseries that tells a powerful story of abuse and revenge within a family.
“It is not a continuation of Justice, but it does have the very innovative format of that one, which is four different stories of crimes of people who go to prison and come out seven years later, and those stories intersect. It is a very innovative format with very strong stories,” said Angela Colla.
The day wrapped with Lifetime presenting its production with VIP+, Padres, which will premiere in theaters in Puerto Rico before joining Lifetime. The event was attended by the main actors of the film.
In dramas, of course, Turkish content remained at the forefront of conversations. The Indian company GoQuest Media announced an alliance with the production company VIP2000 TV and Stellar Yapim, to co-produce a Turkish drama that they will bring to the Hispanic market. “We are going to develop a story based in India, we are very excited because it is our first Turkish production that we are going to bring to the market,” Mikaela Pérez, sales executive at GoQuest Media.
Somos Distribution, meanwhile, is representing Bahar, Mistco’s first co-production: “The truth is that Bahar is an important title, it has an interesting plot for Latin America,” highlighted Francisco Villanueva, VP and COO of Somos Distribution. “The villain is very villainous and we always like that for the Latin American public the novel has a great plot. It has a beautiful plot because she loses her memory, and the protagonist manages to make her fall in love before and after, showing that they really are perfect for each other “.
This Thursday the 25th, Content Americas 2024 will come to an end with another day that promises to maintain the dynamics of meetings and the level of discussions of the previous days.
